old fashion, doorstoping type of reporting. it was a combination of research and door to door and you name it. we're all very proud. that's all we have for tonight. the beat with ari melber starts now. thank you very much. we're cover a lot of developing story. we're hours away from a critical recount deadline right here in florida. i have new reporting with democrats digging in and lawsuits flying. witnesses talking about bob mueller bearing down on whether roger stone illegally intimidated witnesses. also, tonight, the trump tapes. the new lawsuit trying to force the release of unseen videos from apprentice. the lawyer leading the charge is here on the beat. our top story is the blue w wave changing the trump era. you can see the new freshman,

the house class posing for their official photo. you know the saying this is what democracy looks like. it's a stark divide between the new republican plmembers that y see here and the new democratic members of congress. obviously larger group because democrats won so many seats and that group simply looks a lot more like america because it has more women, more diversity than the new gop members. >> i thought it was a very close to complete victory. >> to paraphrase, the president is entitled to his own opinion

but not his own facts. he knows thewon more seats thann four decades and that's far closer to a complete loss for trump than a complete victory. he knew he was lying. trump flailing about firing members of his cabinet. he's upset about this loss. brooding over the florida recounts. the republicans are still up by a hair. reports he is sulking over key races that republicans loss. a stampede that continues tonight because new results from california that give democrats another house seat. nine more races undecided meaning the rookie list that we showed you earlier tonight could grow. elections have consequences. they show where the voters stand. even when they are more than a week, in the end let's be

clear, we do see where the voters stand. across the nation the voters are standing up against trumpism having tasted two years of it by that very large margin. they are standing up for changing congress as we know it. you see it right here. turning this congress into a younger, more female, more diverse governing institution and a more democratic one. that's where the power is headed for the next two years. the president knows it even if he lies to his own supporters about what happened which is part of why these leaks inside the white house are casting him as treating into a cocoon of bitterness and resentment. i turn to former two dnc chairs. donna brazile and howard dean, a former dnc chair who has been an analyst for us here at the beat. you see trump react that way. that means he does know he lost. >> not only this but it's a big story that people aren't

covering. yes, we won the house, which is great. young people are taking over the democratic party in a big way. most elections were won by people that run for something and color of change and collective pack. voter latin know. they did the field work. recruited 15,000 people to run for office and they did it at every level. we took well over 300 legislative seats around the country. this is a fantastic thing for the younger generation to be taking over the democratic party. that's an even bigger story than kicking trump's butt and winning congress back. >> donna, listen to maxine waters talking about where we are headed. >> make no mistake, come january this committee we can end regulations in putting our economy another risk of another financial crisis will come to an end. >> donna, what was your thoughts looking at that unusual group of

freshmen and women today? >> as a veteran of capitol hill, as a staffer, as somebody who spent my early years as an intern, first of all, i was f t gratified to see so many people who look like me. we have a historic congress. the most diverse in the history of our country. it comes from one of the largest midterm turn outs. for democrats, we almost drop a decade in terms of the age of those elected. it was a good night. a good week, a good election season for democrat. howard dean knows this. we had a 50 state strategy. we ran everywhere. we had candidates who understood they had to go back to the grass roots. we had people volunteering, sending money to regular means. it was a people powered campaign and a people powered democratic party that's undergoing great changes at all levels. i was proud of the success we saw last week. >> well, howard, donna, rng

quo is quoting the platform you ran on. if you're being quoted you're being influential. chris collins was clear and factual about the fact that republicans lost and that changes everything because in the house it's all about whose in charge. take a look. >> let's face it, when you're in the minority, your job is just to vote no on what goes on because in the minority, you don't control the hearings. you don't control the legislation. it's going to be a different world for all of us. >> a different world for those house republicans, howard. as a politico, what do you think he's doing there. is he trying to lower expectations to people under the trump era has changed. >> he and duncan hunter, the two indicted members of the republican party got a particular problem. i don't want to guess about what

he's trying to do. i think that odds that both of them don't finish out their term are pretty high. i was shocked that collins was re-elected because he had a pretty good opponent. i don't know what republicans say and why they say it. they have a version of facts for the most part and we'll have to see what happens. i think maxine will do a great job as chairman of the finance committee. she's unlike what trump claim, she's really smart and second of all she knows what she's doing. i think we will get a good and fair chairperson who will protect average americans and not worry about the campaign contributions that the republicans seem to worry about all the time. >> maxine is not only tougher, she's tenacious. she's smart. she knows her business and she's fair. she wants an economy that works for all people. not just affluent and those on wall street. >> donna and howard, we talked a bit about what democrats see as good news. in a moment i'll bring in a

republican congressman who is departing. i want to press you on one thing which is for all this talk of change, we're not seeing the voice of change or young people being reflected in the house leadership race. there seems to be a bit of a deficit of democracy there when you have the idea that maybe someone should run against pelosi. she is projecting confidence. take a look. >> hello. feeling confident you'll be the next speaker? >> i do. >> kwhawhat's your level of confidence? >> high. >> obviously, on behalf of reporters, i'll say we ask those questions. they are not the best questions. of course she's going to say high confidence. what else will she say. more broadly and i know you have beeni been supportive of her, wouldn't it be good for the democrats with this new blood to have a more robust, open race for speaker. that's part of why when howard

dean ran for president people said we have to stick for the establishment. no, a big open wide race is good. >> i'm a strong supporter of nancy pelosi. i don't have a vote but i have a voice. i respect her. her leadership has been tremendous. one of the reasons why we have more women and minorities and others at the table is bauecaus of the leadership of nancy pelosi. she's opened doors for many to be able to take their seats. i'm confident when our leadership races over, you'll see some new blood. we don't have to go to count dracula to get a blood infusion in the democratic party. we did that last tuesday. what we need to do is put the best leader forward who knows how to fight. who knows how to get things done. i believe that person is nancy p pelosi. >> i want you both do hang in with me.

he was criticized by the president the day after the election. let's start with the way donald trump talked about that day. take a look. >> they did very poorly. i'm not sure that i should be happy or sad. i feel just fine about it. carlos, mike coffman. maya love gave me no love and she lost. too bad. >> the president said you lost your seat because you didn't embrace him enough. is he right? >> thank you for having me. the president's comments are total nonsense. in my district i got about 49.1%. close race. governor scott who will likely be the next senator from florida

got about 44.5%. ron desantis who is the governor-elect of florida as far as we can tell, got 45.5%. we know ran ranon ran a race cl aligned. the president has to accept the facts. in suburban districts throughout america his tone, his rhetoric and his style were rejected by many voters even in districts like mine where members like me had our own brands, pretty independent minded people. and they lost. >> you're making a fascinating point. we don't know what will be the outcome in that senate race. what you're saying is this is one of those funny things in politics where you had better total numbers than some of your republican colleagues closer to

trump but 49 didn't do it in your district. do you think rick scott would have been better off if he hasn't been so trumpy? >> i think we're at a time in our country's politics where most americans and for sure it's a silent majority, they want people in washington who are independent minded. who are going to be willing to compromise to this new democratic majority that's coming to the house. my message to them is sure, opposition is important but what's even more important is a willingness to compromise, to reach across the aisle. w winning election s not an ends. it's a means to get a policy passed. the way our government is designs is it requires compromise. that's what the american people need solutions for infrastructure and immigration. that's the big challenge. >> congressman, do you think that donald trump should extend an olive branch as so many presidents have been encouraged to do. he should meet with them and try to figure out where they can

avoid an adversarial footing and coopera cooperate. he hasn't been reeaching out. he was trash talking you as a fellow party member and out here trash talking everybody else? >> that's right. i think george w. bush showed great example of that in 2006 when democrats took over congress. he knew that it was a rebuke of his policies, of his style at the time. he did what he could to work with sththem. this president, if he wants to put country first and not just him and republican leadership and democrat leadership, if they want to put the country first, they will put politics aside for a few months and get some big things done for this country. >> congressman, i appreciate you joining us in washington. i'm sorry we're not here in your

native miami together. do you have a great bar or restaurant tip while we're down here? >> flthere's a bun mch of great places. i had the great lhonor of representing the florida keys. if you're willing to make the driver down go to key largo and have some great fish. if you're feeling cold, come on down. >> there it is. a pitch for your constituents, local tours and business. i know that donna has a lot of good taste in seafood, if i remember correctly. >> yes. absolutely. great bars and restaurants. >> we're leave howard in vermont with the maple syrup. >> that's his problem. >> my thanks to each of you. donna, i'll speak to you more as

well. coming up, we have these new reports that mueller is investigating whether roger stone might have tried to intimidate witnesses. donald trump's new theory about why his party loses elections. i have a special fact check on a story we haven't covered on purpose. why fox news claims about it are leaving. my sinterview with a lawyer filing a lawsuit trying to get ahold of those apprentice tapes. .

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new signs of action from bob mueller has the fight escalates in congress over how to protect his work from the new attorney general. many posts explore whether stone tried to intimidate a witness. that's the context of the retiring senator jeff flake that would force a vote. trump says he can fire the special counsel. he thinks he has that better. nbc reported that trump wanted to fire mueller in 2017.

mitch mcconnell plblocking that vote. >> i talk to the president fairly often. no indication that the mueller investigation will not will allowed to finish. he's never said he wants to shut it down. i think it's in no danger so i don't think any legislation -- >> senator flake responded to mcconnell by threaten to block the 21 judicial nominees currently pending. i'm joined by a former u.s. attorney and maya wiley. joyce, your view of the stone news. >> well, the stone news is very interesting. it's always seemed like he had a big target on his back and would likely be where mueller is going flexio next. the interesting thing is there's a lot about obstruction. we're not hearing much in the way of leaks about whether mueller is looking at charging stone with substantive violations that might be the

link between russia and the trump campaign. that's what all the fuss is oobt he -- about. we'll have to wait and see. >> i want to read a bit more on this. it says in grand jury sessions the mueller prosecutors have been asking about the e-mail, texts and posts that link stone. when randy has come out and spoken it's been on the beat in some pretty newsworthy exchanges about what they were looking at and he did break the news about roger stone threatening him and his dog. take a look. >> i'm going to read to you something that roger stone allegedly said to you. quote, i'm going to take that dog away from you. nothing you can do about it. i will prove to the world you're a liar. is stone trying to threaten you so you will change your account

of his activities in 2016? >> i think he didn't like me been on your show. he's afraid i will unload on him. >> why is he bringing your dog into this? >> because he's a sick man. he's delusional. >> maya, this is a bizarre one. we don't have a lot of dog threatening precedent in the case law. do you think it helps roger stone because it could seem so outlandish as to not be a credible threat or do you think this could be a crime? >> i don't think we have enough facts to asasess that legally. there's no question roger stone has shown some pretty bullying behavior in public. particularly if he threfeels threat threatened. he dropped the b word on me once because he didn't like something i said on television.

i've never met the man. i don't know him. he does have pattern of behavior that's not very positive and doesn't put him in a positive light. whether or not it crosses the line into obstruction is a separate issue and one of the primary issues is whether or not randy was a back channel and the efforts that roger stone took to create that back channel with russia or russian operatives who were stealing e-mails. >> joyce, if this is all that mueller ultimately has on roger stone then it would look like stuff he did pursuant to the investigation and not collusion. while no one is saying you get poo pass on that, all kinds of people get in trouble for this all the time. that does mean this isn't super collusiony. isn't that what the implication would be if this is all about intimidation? >> mueller has shown a willingness to indict people for

lying to law enforcement. based on the amount of time and the number of witnesses that he's been -- that we're publicly aware he's been putting time into in this case it's unlikely all he's looking at stone for is obstruction. as you correctly point out, stone is believed to be one of the key links between russian interference and the inquiry into whether or not the trump campaign knew about this interference and participated in it. we won't know until we see the final indictment here. >> thank you as always. the florida recount deadline is looming. it's tomorrow. we have new reporting from the ground when we're back in just 30 seconds. ground when we're back in just s30econds (vo) this is not a video game. this is not a screensaver. this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body's own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn't exist until now. and today can save your life. ♪

♪ we're in florida tracking this historic race. on the eve of these potential results that could come in tomorrow, there's a torrent of mud slinging especially by republicans. false claims of voter fraud and stealing elections. florida governor ahead of bill nelson in that crucial senate race by just 12,000 votes out of eight plus million. ron desantis ahead by a more comfortable 33,000 votes. yet two days after florida judge said there was no signs of voter frauds here, donald trump this afternoon telling the daily caller if republicans lose it would be because of potentially illegal votes and saying voters go around in circles and then

change their outfits to vote multiple times. florida republican senator particular cmarco rubio attacking the lawsuits. >> what we should not see is lawyers are able to find federal judges that change florida election law after the election. go in and order the state of florida to ignore its own laws. that would be stealing an election and that would be unacceptable. >> here was another republican matt gates. >> the resistance movement has changed from, you know, yelling at town halls to yelling in restaurants and now it's actually trying to steal elections they can't win at the ballot box. democrats justify anything they do against trump as being righteous even if it's morally wrong or even if it's illegal. >> as we reported at the top, everything you just heard and those are from current members

of congress is false and has not been supported by the independent judicial review up to this point. if we find out something else, we would bring that to you. there's a fight going onto extend the deadline further based on problems with the recount. i'm rejoined by donna brazile. he's been through a florida recount has al gore's campaign manager in 2000 and dan sweeney reporter right here with me. donna, florida 2000 looms over everything. have the democrats learned anything politically and are the republicans up to the same old tricks in that rhetoric or is it worse when we hear it basically embraced by trumpism? >> first of all, i think we have learned a lot since 2000. we have fought to open up the voter registration process. we faugought to make sure we upe the machine, technology and since 2016 when we saw potential

meddling by the russian, homeland security is in the process of helping states update entire election administration. when the deadline to cast your ballot is november 6th and many of the ballots are coming from overseas whether it's military or non-military, you have to count every vote. back in 2000, we had less than six million voters. we had over 8.5 million people cast ballots. it's important to have every legal and lawful ballot counted before we certify the election results. i believe that voter intent matters. we need to take a look at what happened with regards to how people tried to cast their ballots provisional ballots and mail in ballots that may not have the signature match. in the morning i might write my d one way and the afternoon i might right it another. that should not be the reason to invalidate ballots. i'm sick and tired of the tactics that are being used every election season from 2010

i've watched 28 states basically enact some of the most egregious voter restrictions possible. you saw what happened in north dakota. >> i want to be clear, you're right to call that out. we're in the state because it's so important, there was a bipartisan coalition to restore voting rights to ex-convicts showing there's more than one thing going on. i have a very good friend on the line here. take a look. >> every one talks about florida. florida is a purple state. we have close elections. it's not a constitutional cri s crisis. it's a close race. we're going to have close races very close. vacation together and all that kind of stuff. >> we did not vacation.

we lived on the same block on capitol hill. we shared a couple glasses and wine. i got a chance to talk to her. we aired our differences and i respect her very much. she's right. we're going to have close races in florida. therefore we should have policies that allow us to count every legal lawful ballot in the state of florida. >> dan, let's get right into what will happen tomorrow. are they going to meet the deadline and will there be a manual recount? >> that depends what county you're talk about. broward county said it will have everything done by 6:00 in the morning. that's what the supervisor of l elections says. all the republican and democratic lawyers that have been watching this at the scene down there, the over under for them is around 11:30. palm beach county say they may not be able to meet the deadline on all of its races. they have a state house race. they also had counting machine

over heat and recount 170,000 votes or so. >> why do you think this happens in florida so much? >> well, the look every election is messy. it's just -- >> every election in florida in. >> every election everywhere. >> the difference is down here nobody cares about it. these provisional ballots, over votes. no one cares when one candidate wins by ten points. they only care when it's close. in florida, it's close. >> that's the argument that kathryn harris who is well known associate of donna brazile. i'm having fun with this. that's her argument that we just heard and she was controversial in the way she defended republicans in 2000. she said when it's close you i understand -- end up noticing the problems. >> you see it time and time again in florida.

it's several different states mashed into one. it all sort of balances out in the end. the voter registration is close. it will have close elections. >> a little bit of local political gossip is about whether pam bondy is any closer to make it into the administration. do you have any read on that? >> there were about three or four different jobs she was up for when the administration first kicked off. she was maybe up for ag and maybe up for drug czar and maybe up for a couple of other things and she never got any of them. i feel like if her time was going to happen there in the white house, it probably would have happened already. we'll see. >> you know what they say, the stone that the builder refused can still be the head corner stone. >> hey, i'm still looking for those 537 votes, ari. >> thank you for breaking the silence. it's occupational hazard. donna brazile, always a

pleasure. dan, thank you. we have more from the recount fight. our latest reporting and what you need know. later, will the secret apprentice tapes leak? whatever happened to the caravan? i'm going to go inside one of the most disgraceful political stunts of the current era. al stunts of the current era. ♪ ♪ ♪ the united states postal service makes more holiday deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. ♪ with one notable exception. ♪

tonight over 5,000 u.s. soldiers are serving near our border under the order president trump issued heading right into that midterm election. they will be sleeping in tents, eating military meals, separated from their families. a mission costing you about $200 million. donald trump said he was deploying them to combat a caravan of immigrants marching thousands of miles away. if you watch this news program, you may know over the past month we have not led our newscast with that caravan or dedicated

entire segments to it because that migration march was not a big or unusual development for gl gl global migration. it was a final scare tactic before the election. a top trump official leaking in october that doesn't matter if it's 100% accurate, this is the play. let me repeat that play. this is the play. if that trump leaker is correct, they've already admitted their boss deployed the political tear for -- military for a misleading play. fox news gave that play huge coverage. fox defender might argue they can cover what they want and may they care a lot about the caravan issue. you could argue that but it's not true. here is the facts, since the election caravan coverage has mostly disappeared. the same folks hyping this before the election aren't

talking about it. here was trump before the election day. >> how about that caravan? >> the caravan. >> caravan. >> caravan. >> caravan after caravan. >> caravan after caravan. >> after caravans. >> i noticed all that beautiful barbed wire going up today. >> fox news echoing that message with almost breathless self-paro self-parody. >> it's not caravan. it's an invasion. >> gang activity. gang members. >> some carrying guns and fire bombs. >> i want to know who is in that caravan. are the pedophiles? career criminals? >> could more isis terrorists be embedded. >> they are coming in with diseases such as smallpox and tb. >> hiv, rabies. >> this is an act of attacking the united states sovereignty. >> if any of that were true, it would be a big long term story.

since the election, fox news, had 33 hours of segments and since the election, nothing on election day. the hours of coverage melt away. the facts here are important and they don't only indict fox news. let's fall in where they lead. two of the most respected print outs in america ran 84 stories on the caravan in the single week before the election and that fell to half in just the week after. the drop off shows how much this nonh nonh non-troversy were echoes. some of them were reporting news and fact checking those claims. that journalistic rule does not require dozens and dozens of story time for the election and not double the coverage before the election than after. now, all of that is important so people don't get played again.

we can learn together but the joke may be on trump who lost the election even with that caravan coverage. it's also on those of us in the media the stephen colbert hit the punch line about how they disappeared after the election. >> and now, it's gone. how is that possible? who got rid of the caravan? could it be the caravan. ♪ >> even if voters were not fooled, this is real life. this is not a drill. the u.s. soldiers are still down there long after trump and fox news have mover moved on and co this stunt far less. as you see on the screen, you're paying for it. i'm joined by anthony brown.

thank you for joining me to dig in to what matters in this story, sir. >> great to be on with you. >> what do you think of the substance as a legislature and veteran that these soldiers are still down there even though trump seems to have completely moved on thanand this was an election stunt? >> as a soldier who deployed to iraq for a year, i spent thanksgiving, christmas, a number of other important family events deployed and away from our family. i'm disappointed the president used the military as a play thing. men and women who raise their right hand to join the armed forces know they will be deployed. they are willing to do it when the mission is real. when they are doing what they are trained to do and what they are asked to do in defense of their country. to send thousands of soldiers to the southwest border when there's no threat.

the mission is dubious at best. it's demoralizing and has a real impact, negative impact on the military's readiness. >> secretary matt iis gave away part of the game and he's got to follow lawful orders. he said they will not be stopping any invasion or making direct contact. take a look. >> at the present, i do not anticipate military personnel coming in to direct contact with migrants. the military police will provide protection for those service members who are supporting custom and border police. >> given all that and what we have learned, i want to take part of our set up to this conversation and put it to you, how do we do a better job distinguishing between these stunts and covering what our actual national security or

migration issues? >> first of all, let me say i'm disappointed with secretary mattis who otherwise i have considerably high regard for. earlier this year when the national guard was being deployed to the southwest border, i introduced an amendment to the defense authorization act. it wouldn't have prevented these deployments because if they are necessary, we ought to do them. if we're going to deploy men and women to the southwest border, we need toe ha have a strategy. need to lay out to the american people, to congress what's the cost, what's the benefit, what's the impact on raeeadiness and wt is the long term play. this afternoon secretary mattis could argue in the short term but not the long term. that's not how you operate a military. i know he knows a lot better than that. >> i'm almost out of time. you mentioned the authorization

act. are there other things your party can do to constrain this type of potential abuse of the military in the new congress in. >> absolutely. we're going to have oversight authority. we'll be bringing the civilian and military personnel into congress with some probing questions. we have the power of the purse. we're going to put restrictions on these needless deployment of active duty soldiers so we can ensure our military is ready to face real threats. >> the money matters. all spending bills originate in the house. you're about to have a lot more party on your side of the aisle. that 200 million was spent on this. it's always a question of democracy, whether this was the right spend. thank you so much. >> thank you. thank you very having me. up ahead, the eyes of political world on florida. my latest reporting from inside some of these recount centers. there's a lawyer taking on donald trump to get the apprentice tapes and alleging racism. that's up knicks. coaching means making tough choices.

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you may have heard about these secret apprentice tapes. some zifcivil rights lawyers wa to get their hands on them. his plan to stop some deportation protections was motivated by racial anamous. it will reveal racial or ethnic lurs.

slurs. trump denies any such remaining tapes exist. here was a former contestant last week. >> president trump racist. and i think we should stop playing this racial bingo with him to figure out how many times he has to prove he is who he is. >> what are you going to achieve through this suit? >> so, thanks for having me. last spring, we filed a lawsuit challenging the trump administration's termination of temporary protected status on behalf of haitians, salvadorans, and honduran immigrants. what we're trying to do is save that program, which affects over 300,000 immigrants in this country. as part of our lawsuit,' we've alleged that the trump administration was motivated by racial bias and racial animus, some of that coming from trump himself. what we're seeking with these subpoenas -- >> so let's -- yeah, let's dig

into this. and i should mention, i was so excited to hear your argument, your name is orrin nimny from the lawyers from civil rights. i was not right to not get you in on that. orrin, what you're saying, basically, is you have this larger, very big stakes issue. and you think that the judge is more likely to say that donald trump acted as president, as, let's call it what it is, as a racist, you allege. if you can prove that he was privately like that on tape. >> that's correct. we have ample evidence from tweets, from public statements, from other documents that there is racial bias in the trump administration, coming from the president himself. but we're in the phase of our case where we're looking for all the evidence we can possibly get. so we want to seek these tapes to see if there's anymore bias that we can uncover. >> i think it's fascinating, because viewers will remember, this was the big issue in the travel ban case. presidents have a ton of authority to decide who comes into the country.

and that's not really widely debated. the question was, was it an anti-religious act, because he publicly said he wanted to ban muslims, and people felt -- non-lawyers felt like that seemed like overwhelming evidence. it wasn't good enough in the eyes of the supreme court. so was that part of your motivation here? and does that help you maybe get more evidence? because you can say, look, obviously, the court set a very high standard. they need a lot of proof before they declare a politician a racist, which is kind of the implication, if you overrule something that way. >> yeah. we all agree that the president has the authority to limit people that come in and out of the country, but he can't do it in a racist way. so we have some of the evidence that i was talking about, but more evidence is always needed to bolster, particularly in light of that decision from the supreme court. and so that's what motivated us, looking at these tapes, as one piece of overwhelming evidence that this program was terminated, because of racial animus. >> it's really a fascinating tactic that you and your team

has adopted and we've heard a lot of people argue that they should see the tapes, them to see the tapes, they like the idea of seeing the tapes. as we know, courts don't give you tapes just for those reasons. you seem to have hit on one that is both important and would affect a lot of people's lives, depending on the outcome of your case here. so orrin, thanks for telling us a little bit about it. >> thank you for having me. >> appreciate it. broadcast. tomorrow, here in florida, there is a big deadline to finish the county recounts. so we're going to be covering that, continuing some of the reporting we've been doing here on the ground all this week. this is ground zero of how the florida election could be decided. by a show of hands, how many people here are affiliated with or hoping the republicans win? what do you want to see happen inside there today? >> we just want justice. we want the truth. we don't want fraud. this is the mother of all waiting rooms. you've got a lot of different people who are gathered. the seal's being broken on these boxes of preserved ballots and the recounting underway. >> corsi's the little fish,

stone's the bigger fish. and trump is the biggest fish. >> see, we're in florida. i would say corsi is sort of maybe the bottom-feeding fish. and kendall, roger stone is like the little bird inside, living off the alligator's, you know, tooth decay? trump may or may not be the alligator? >> you're down there in florida where it's nice and warm and you're talking about al alligators. and i'm up here where it's about 15 degrees in wisconsin. >> everybody knows it's warm down here. i've learned that tonight. we're going to be back on the ground with this recount deadline tomorrow. we could know who won this senate race as soon as tomorrow and we're here to bring you the facts directly. so we wanted to remind you of that when "the beat's" live tomorrow. now, up ahead, michelle obama, her mom, and a moment you really have to see with your own eyes. wn eyes

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breaking news this hour on michael avenatti. the lawyer for stormy daniels. nbc is reporting that mr. avenatti has been arrested for a domestic violence charge. that's breaking right now and msnbc will bring you updates as warranted. now, before we go, we did want to show you one other thing that i mentioned to you earlier in the hour. michelle obama, joined by someone quite special to her on this book tour she's doing, her mom, mary ann robertson, who actually lived in the white house with the first family and helped raise their dp granddaughters. now, she has never, ever talked to the press until this interview. >> why did you want her there?

why was it important to you? >> well, because, for the girls, you know? i wanted them to come home to family. there was just parts of the girls' lives that i just knew were going to be okay because mom was there. >> what's the best thing about michelle obama that makes you proudest? >> well, now i -- my saying is, when i grow up, i would like to be like michelle obama. >> ahhh. >> ahh. wow. >> and she gets the last word on our show tonight. "hardball with chris matthews" is up next. up to his elbows. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. there's an old saying, when you're up to your elbows in alligators, it's easy to forget